Acitavones Explained
The Acitavones were a small Gallic tribe dwelling in the Alps during the Iron Age.
Name
They are mentioned as Acitavones (var. agitabo-) by Pliny (1st c. AD),[1] and as Acitavones on the Tropaeum Alpium.[2] [3]
The etymology of the name Acitauones is unclear. The first element, acito-, could mean 'field' (cf. Old Irish ached, achad), or else be a variant of agido- ('face, appearance').
Geography
According to historian Guy Barruol, they may have dwelled in the Aosta Valley, near the Little St Bernard Pass. Their territory was located north of the Medulli and Segusini, south of the Veragri, west of the Salassi, and east of the Ceutrones.[4]
History
They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as one of the Alpine tribes conquered by Rome in 16–15 BC, and whose name was engraved on the Tropaeum Alpium.
References
Primary sources
- Book: Pliny. Natural History. Harvard University Press. 1938. 978-0674993648. Loeb Classical Library. Rackham. H.. Pliny the Elder.
Bibliography
- Book: Barruol, Guy. Les Peuples préromains du Sud-Est de la Gaule: étude de géographie historique. 1969. E. de Boccard. 3279201. Guy Barruol.
- Book: Delamarre, Xavier. Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. 2003. Errance. 9782877723695. Xavier Delamarre.
- Book: Evans, D. Ellis. Gaulish Personal Names: A Study of Some Continental Celtic Formations. 1967. Clarendon Press. 468437906. Ellis Evans.
- Book: Falileyev, Alexander. Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. CMCS. 2010. 978-0955718236.
- Book: Talbert, Richard J. A.. Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. 2000. 978-0691031699. Richard Talbert.
Notes and References
- [Pliny the Elder|Pliny]
- [Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]
- , s.v. Acitavones.
- , Map 17: Lugdunum.
